Jared Goff rarely looked comfortable in the pocket last season, which is understandable considering how little protection he got from his offensive line. The Rams churned through offensive linemen like few other teams did, rotating through several players before finally settling on a group toward the end of the season.
As a result, Goff has had to improve his passing technique off his back foot and without his feet being set. That’s one specific area he’s been working on this offseason at 3DQB, which is a training facility in Huntington Beach.
Coach Adam Dedeaux has been training Goff this summer during the restricted offseason, and he shared some insight with Jordan Rodrigue of The Athletic about Goff’s work leading up to the season.
Dedeaux said that with offensive lines across the NFL getting very little time to work together this offseason due to the pandemic, he’s working with his quarterback clients to improve their off-platform throws and passes off their back foot.
The ability to move inside the pocket and throw off multiple platforms was really important. And one thing Jared had to do a lot of last year was throw off his back foot. Some of that was related to his footwork, which we wanted to clean up. Some of it was related to that understanding that he didn’t have the same space and time (to throw) that maybe he had been accustomed to, and that this year was going to be no different. We worked on the mechanics of how to be able to throw off of the back foot but not lose any of the velocity or take any more off of the arm. And then also, when you’re forced to move and you find yourself on your front foot, how do you throw off your front foot?
Dedeaux said generating velocity and accuracy “no matter what platform he throws from” has been a “big emphasis” for Goff this offseason, preparing the quarterback for poor blocking up front.
Goff has a tendency regardless of whether there’s pressure in his face to sometimes throw off his back foot when not necessary, though he’s done it with some degree of success. However, the more often he can drive his lower body into a throw rather than retreating, the better off he’ll be.